Each year Marion High School hosts a blood drive to give students the opportunity to donate whole blood or platelets. It’s for a great cause, and many people participate in the event. For those students who choose not to participate, it is often due to a fear of needles or blood; sometimes both. For the students who don’t mind seeing the bags of red liquid and the large needle entering their arms, it is a great chance to get out of a class and help out a sick person in need of blood.

Bobby Vanderlin, junior, started doing the blood drive last year as a sophomore. Although he may not be nervous this year, he was last year. “Someone passed out right before I was about to give blood,” he said. After how smoothly things went last year, he is sure there will be nothing to worry about.

Everyone participates in the drive for different reasons, some want to help by donating their blood, others want to get out of class, and then there are the few people who do it to get a free snack and drink. For Vanderlin it was for two reasons. “It’s for a good cause and I get out of class,” he stated. No matter what a person’s reasons may be for participating in the Marion blood drive, it is a great way to help out a person in need in our community.

A new school year brings new changes. With new classes, news students, and new schedules, there is one change we might have overlooked. Mary Brandhurst, the new library media associate, is not truly a newbie to the job considering she had worked at the high school for seven years. Brandhurst has been working in the Marion district for 17 years in various positions. She worked at Emerson for seven years, at Vernon for two, and has worked as a Special Ed teacher.

Coming back to work at the high school was really no problem for her. “I knew Apra and other teachers, it was a nice change.,” Brandhurst commented. The media associate says she never pictured herself as a school librarian. “I just thought at this point in my life, it might be a nice transition. I really enjoy working with kids,” Brandhurst explained. She has a degree from William Penn college in K-12 P.E.

Brandhurst is married to her husband Jay, and they have two adult children. Their son Casey is married to his wife Lindsey, and they have a two year old daughter named Reid. Their other son, Sean, is 23 and not married.

Outside of work, Brandhurst enjoys shopping, reading, and spending time with her friends and family. She also spends some of her time rooting for the Hawkeyes. “They need all the cheering they can get,” Brandhurst said with a chuckle .

Mary Brandhurst said that she does not have a least favorite part about working in the Librarian. “Probably just having to tell students to not eat at the computers,” Brandhurst stated. Her favorite part is being around the students, some she has known since they were little, and being able to help them and talk with them. Mary Brandhurst loves her job at MHS and is happy she made the decision to come back here to work.

Mary Bandhurst, the new media associate in the library, sits behind her desk

Looking for a fun way to kick off the beginning of fall activities? The 2014 Swamp Fox festival on September 5th, 6th, and 7th in the Marion Square area is a great way to do that!

The Swamp Fox Parade is just one of the many highlights of this year’s festival and will be held on Saturday, the 6th. Whether it be starting off the day with a tasty pancake breakfast, challenging yourself with a 5k run, or just strolling through the Farmer’s Market – there is something entertaining for everyone! So, grab those walking shoes and don’t miss out on this exciting way to spend time with friends and family at an event everyone is sure to love!

This past weekend, the NFL team, the St. Louis Rams, cut defensive end Michael Sam. Michael Sam made headlines earlier this year when he opened up about being a homosexual. Sam was the first openly gay football player. Now some people may think this is the reason he was cut from the team, but realistically, it was not.

Michael Sam is indeed a good player. He had a very successful collegiate career with the University of Missouri Tigers, including becoming the SEC defensive player of the year in 2013. But he is still a rookie who was on a team with a very talented and experienced defensive line, including Chris Long and Robert Quinn.

This morning, it was announced that Sam didn’t make the cut for the ten man practice squad as well. But then again, no other defensive end did either. Michael Sam did not make the team, not because he was gay, but because he is a rookie who is inexperienced even though he still has potential. Will another team pick up Sam? Yes for sure. He had a very good preseason which included sacking Brown’s quarterback, Johnny Manziel.

Who will pick up Michael Sam? The possibilities are endless, but there’s no doubt that he will still be a part of a team roster at some point this season.

School is back in full swing, and many things come with a new school year. New faces, new teachers, new classes, and for many, new friends. Classes get harder as the students expand their knowledge, but somehow, teaching methods seem to stay the same even though some shouldn’t.

Here at Marion, we pride ourselves on having well educated and passionate teachers, and truly, most of them are; but they’re getting the same salaries and the same benefits as the teachers who quite frankly, don’t teach. There are countless teachers here at Marion who put their entire heart and soul into their job. They stay at work late into the evening, and even when they go home, they are often times still working off the clock. This is the way teachers should be. They have the education of the student in their hands, and it is only fair that they nurture it and care for it with everything they can. They chose this as their career choice, and so they need to do everything that the job entails. These teachers are the ones that make an impact daily on students’ lives, and each teacher should be like them, but they aren’t.

In every job, there are people who just scoot by. People who do the bare minimum just to get the paycheck, and move on with their lives. These people usually don’t have much of an effect on other’s lives. These teachers do nothing for their students, yet they are given the same power. They are granted the right to hold a students education in their palms, and just like that, they drop it. Now, maybe they don’t know that what they are doing is affecting their students so much, or maybe they actually think they are doing a good job, but they need to be told that they aren’t.

These teachers could be completely oblivious to the fact that from them, their students are learning nothing. Now, while in this class the student may love the teacher for letting them too, just scoot by with little homework, but in the end it will hurt them more than they know. First, they won’t know the material when it pops up in a later class, and they learn methods that are lazy and wrong.

We as students, need to have these conversations with the teachers or with the principal, to let them know that there are several teachers in this school putting our education as students at risk. They need to know that these teachers should not be given the same power as the teachers who care about their job and who are passionate about the education they are handing down to students. We need to stand as a front, because we deserve a good education. We deserve the passion and spark of good teachers.

The first day of school is an all around crazy day. Freshmen have their first day of high school ever. Most of them do not remember where their classes are or when to go to lunch. For the seniors, it is a bittersweet day, being their last first day of high school. For the sophomores and juniors, it is just another day that they have to be at school in the middle of their high school journey.

Cheyanne Thompson, freshman, had a pretty good first day of school. “I got here at 7:3

0 because I missed freshman orientation,” said Thompson. Her brother showed her around, and her friend also had an older brother that helped her throughout the day. The first day of school went by really smooth for her, and she was only a little nervous for her first day.

The second day of school was a different story. “My brother and I didn’t leave the house until fifteen minutes before the bell rang, and we have to walk to school. I had a feeling I was going to be late. On top of that, I forgot my locker number,” said Thompson, “all in all I was a lot more nervous the second day than I was the first day.” She was also nervous because she didn’t really remember where all of her classes were. Thompson accidently went to her third block class instead of here fourth block class. On top of it all it was her birthday, so having a stressful day at school kind of put a damper on the usually fun filled day.

Cheyanne thinks that high school is a lot different from middle school. “The classes are longer, but you have less of them. You get more homework so you have to think about time management,” added Thompson. She decided to take general classes this year, and is waiting to take Spanish until next year because she doesn’t want to be overly stressed about school. “You don’t have a lot of free time, and you also don’t get a study hall like in middle school,” said Thompson. Cheyanne thinks that she has good time management skills and that she will be able to work it all out.

Just imagine, it’s a peaceful Tuesday afternoon. The wind is whipping in through the open windows of the car. An individual is driving down the highway, cruising, loving life, taking in the beautiful cornfields and hills of the great Iowa landscape. Suddenly they notice something in the distance. They near closer and closer to the strange object, realizing all too soon what they’re coming up on. A large sign that reads “‘God, send us someone who can cure AIDS, Cancer, etc. etc.’ ‘I did but you aborted them’.”

Anti-abortion billboards are scattered all along the highway, not only in Iowa, but in many states across the U.S. There are hundreds upon thousands of people who riot against abortion each year. The 14th Amendment gives every woman their right to an abortion, but obviously, a multitude of people have chosen to use their right to Freedom of Speech to protest this privilege. Abortion is frowned upon by most people, but the few people who aren’t against the idea of killing a fetus are not going to have their minds changed by a cheesy billboard.

Just think about it, if an individual is pregnant and considering an abortion, whose place is it to tell them they can’t get one? The individual is already experiencing a lot of confusion and stress about their situation, and if they do choose to abort their child they’ll experience a lot more. Do they really need strangers attacking their choices? And honestly, if an individual is driving down the highway and they happens to see one of these ridiculous signs, what are the odds of them going ‘you know what, I’m going to keep this baby now.’

Just because we as a people have the right to riot against things we disagree with, it doesn’t mean that we have to impose these rights on other people. Is it really going to make someone think about not getting an abortion if you put up that sign? No, probably not, it’s just going to make you look like a huge, ignorant jerk. Choose wisely friends.

As they line up for the start of the game, last game in regular season for the girl’s soccer team. There will be one person that is missing on the field as the season comes to the end. Watching is sometimes the hardest thing an athlete could do, Tessa Jordan, sophomore, is out due to a sprained ankle that happened in a previous soccer game.

Jordan still tries to participate, “I fill their water bottles,” said Jordan. She tries to keep a positive look out for her team so they can keep succeeding so when she is back from her injury she can continue to play with her fellow teammates. “I go to physical therapy twice a week,” said Jordan, so she can recover faster and get back to the game she loves.

Injuries are devastating but working to get back is one of the greatest feelings, “I hate watching, I rather be playing,” said Jordan. The last home game, last regular season game, lots of pressure is put on and all Jordan can do it be there for the girl’s as they continue to progress in the season.